Oh crap. Why did Follow Me Foodie to New Orleans have to start at Cochon!? It set the benchmark really high for the rest of the trip. I had to come down from the hype before starting this post or I might have just given everything 5/6 or 6/6. I was probably most excited to try this restaurant out of my NOLA dining itinerary. I had high hopes going in and it still managed to exceed my expectations. It was definitely one of the gastronomical highlights of my New Orleans food trip.

The restaurant was nominated for Best New Restaurant in America by the James Beard Foundation in 2007, and was listed as “one of the top 3 restaurants that count” by the New York Times. Chef and co-owner Donald Link was already named Best Chef of the South in 2007 by the James Beard Awards, and was a nominee in this year’s James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef of the Year in the US. He has a few restaurants in New Orleans and I was lucky enough to be invited to try Cochon and his flagship restaurant Herbsaint. The restaurants are different styles, but I enjoyed Cochon even more because it featured New Orleans cuisine which I can’t really get anywhere else like this. It was love at first bite!

I think I almost fainted when I discovered that my seat was the best seat in the house (according to me at least). It was smack in front of the kitchen right in front of the forno oven. This is always my favourite spot, and when you’re dining alone it’s great entertainment. I already had an idea of what the restaurant served and pretty much every single thing on the 33 item menu sounded delicious to me. After serious consideration I still had at least 8 dishes I wanted to try. I just knew by looking at the menu that it was a place where you don’t leave just trying 1-2 things. For one it was called “Cochon” which implies a culinary celebration of the whole hog. It’s not a place where you mess around and it’s really all about the food.

Yes, I can hold my own and eat my fair share as you’ve seen numerous times, but sometimes I need a bit of teamwork especially with heavy and rich dishes like these. So I did something very random. I ended up asking the person next to me to help as a dining partner. You won’t do the place justice without having a feast. The portions weren’t huge and actually very fair in size, but they were indulgent and the experience will be better with a team. The liquor menu is just as intense so you should prepare for a cab because you’ll want to make a dent in the drink menu too.

Oh good lord, or I mean lard, this is a place that does the pig right. The forno oven is used for almost half the menu items and it pumps out pigs and seafood and not pizzas. If you like places like Pied Du Cochon in Montreal, Whole Hog Dinners at ReFuel or offal dinners at Campagnolo Roma in Vancouver, Charcut in Calgary, or Traif in Brooklyn, then this one is a no brainer… although pig brains are in the headcheese.

I love pork and eat the whole thing, so this was like Christmas without the family, but I thought about them in between my “omg!!! ___ would love this!!” moments. For some dishes I literally had to tap the random stranger next to me and say “you gotta try this!” That’s how into it I was! I made a couple people try things they would have never ordered and they loved it! I think that just topped off my whole experience!

Cochon is for the carnivore at heart although there are seafood options too. The portions were great and not obscenely huge, the prices were moderate, and most importantly the food was cooked with passion. However you can’t have this food everyday and it is a guilty indulgence, but I would be game for once a month.

It’s one of those restaurants I wish I could just pick up and bring to Vancouver. The menu is considered “adventurous”, but even for first timers they make the food approachable, yet still sophisticated and not dumbed down.

Out of 12 highly rated restaurants I tried in New Orleans, this was in my top 3 and I think I recommended it to every tourist and local I met after this day. I honestly loved it and it’s food and flavour that is unique to New Orleans. It takes a sophisticated approach to Southern cooking while keeping authentic Cajun flavours. The chef is one of the most acclaimed in the city, or even country, and the food didn’t seem mass produced despite the huge orders. Although this blog is more about my experience with food than it is a “review”, I would say Cochon is a must try in New Orleans and I would support the positive reviews it already has.

On the table:

**The Swinekiller – 5/6 (Excellent)

Hendrick’s Gin. Fee Brothers rhubarb bitters, limeade $9

I prefer gin to vodka, tequila, rum or whiskey based cocktails.

This was refreshing and perfectly balanced with sweet and sour and bitter notes at the end.

I think it was the limeade that did it. The lime juice was fresh and tart with simple syrup for sweetness, but it wasn’t dessert like.

It was an excellent way to welcome myself to New Orleans.

Complimentary Bread & Butter

Every restaurant I went to served complimentary hot and fresh out of the oven bread. Most of the time it was French bread, but here it was dinner rolls.

The outside was a bit dry, but the inside was soft and fluffy, but not buttery light like a brioche either.

I expected a place like this to serve cornbread, but the dinner rolls were good.

**Wood-Fired Oyster Roast – 6/6 (FMF Must Try!)

$11

I think I saw 5 orders going out every 10 minutes.

This was definitely a house favourite and they come straight from the forno oven piping hot!

A lot of NOLA restaurants seem to have their signature Wood-Fired Oyster Roasts and I could easily spend a month trying all of them.

99% of the time I prefer raw oysters to cooked, but NOLA convinced me otherwise and I fell in love with their baked oysters.

The Gulf oysters were medium sized, plump and juicy and they were just cooked to perfection. They were silky smooth and not slimy.

I liked that they weren’t pre-breaded, fried or masked with cheese or breadcrumbs. I like those too, but I don’t want my oysters to rely on toppings.

Every bite was a juicy burst of oyster juice and they weren’t mushy, firm or gutsy and almost melted in my mouth.

I could taste lots of garlic, a good tang of fresh lemon juice and lemon zest which was almost like an aromatic salt for the oyster.

It was also spicy from Sriracha sauce, but not overpowering or hot so it never masked the oyster flavour.

There is a Vietnamese influence in some of the dishes and Sriracha sauce is much more flavourful than Tabasco sauce. I can’t wait until this restaurant starts playing with Korean Gochujang sauce.

The oysters were oozing flavour and they were super oily and buttery, but I couldn’t stop eating them.

I’ve shared 70 raw oysters with a friend before, but a plate of these is still a lot. However I wouldn’t want to share with more than 1 or 2 people.

These and Drago’s Seafood Restaurant had my favourite wood-fired oysters roasts in NOLA.

**Hog’s Headcheese Plate – 6/6 (FMF Must Try!)

$8 (Usually comes with 3 slices)

I loved this! I’m not really a fan of most headcheese and usually I find the texture too hard with gelatin, too gelatinous and unpleasantly crunchy, but this was amazing!

It was made with leftover pig parts, but I couldn’t taste the pig snout, ears, or feet. There were no crunchy or gelatinous textures.

The headcheese was almost the texture of cream and I’m not sure which parts of the pig it was made out of. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the head.

The headcheese was spreadable like a creamy pâté and there were chunks of pork butt in it too.

It was very light, soft and loosely packed together and the texture was very unexpected for headcheese.

I couldn’t taste or feel any added gelatin which made me happy.

It was almost like creamy meat butter and it was melting as I took a chunk off to spread on toasted bread.

It was well seasoned and it reminded me of foie gras due to the light texture, but rich flavour.

There was no liver, but it had that umami taste with fresh herbs, garlic, green onions and a nice acidity to cut the richness.

The grainy mustard and pickles were the perfect condiment to cut the fattiness of the headcheese.

Chef Donald Link is known for his boucherie, so I shouldn’t be too surprised at how perfect this was.

Crawfish Étouffée – 4/6 (Very good)

$12

I’ve had crawfish and Crawfish Étouffée in Texas, but this was the only one I had in New Orleans.

It’s a New Orleans staple that is found in Cajun and Creole cuisine.

It’s typically served with Crawfish, but can include any seafood.

There was a lot of tender crawfish which basically tasted like the love child of lobster and shrimp.

There was some ground pork or beef in it too and some green onions which is a must in all New Orleans’ soups and stews.

This was almost like a stew and the rice was firm and not mushy or overcooked from being mixed in.

The roux (butter + flour base) was a dark roux (typical of Cajun and not Creole style roux) and it was buttery and made with a crawfish stock base that I could taste.

The roux makes the difference and this one was excellent. It wass cooked for a long time to get that caramelized colour.

I could taste the seafood stock in the roux too and the white rice was cooked well and not wet or dry.

It was almost like a smoky seafood gravy and the only thing was that it wasn’t spicy and I would have liked some spice.

Braised Gizzards – 4/6 (Very good)

Roasted mushrooms, pickles, liver & bacon jus $12

I’m a fan of chicken and duck gizzards and they taste like dark meat chicken, but with a naturally chewy texture.

This is a very heavy and meaty dish and of course you need to love offal and strong meaty flavours to enjoy this.

It reminded me of a beef and kidney pie with the flaky puff pastry shells.

The liver was pungent as it normally is and served in large chunks, so you have to be a fan of pork liver to appreciate this.

The gizzards were perfectly cooked, big and plump. They’re not gelatinous, but bouncy.

The gizzards were braised in a rich meat gravy made with I think browned butter and bacon drippings. It was quite oily and saucy.

I think the gizzards or liver were sauteed with some pork lardons before serving because the lardons were fried almost crispy.

The roasted mushrooms had a similar texture to the gizzards so it was a nice play with ingredients. It also lightened up the dish a bit.

There were cubes of crunchy pickles which gave the dish some much needed acidity.

I would have loved some slices of pickled cucumber on the side as well because I still found it heavy.

As good as this was, it’s something I would want to share because it’s a lot.

**Fried Alligator – 6/6 (FMF Must Try!)

With chili garlic aioli $8

This was one of my favourite dishes from my whole NOLA trip. I’m still thinking about them.

I’ve tried grilled alligator in Thailand before and it tastes just like white meat chicken.

Alligator is another New Orleans protein and if you’ve never tried it, this is an easy way to warm up to it – deep fried.

It was battered and deep fried pieces of alligator generously coated with a chili garlic aioli and topped with onions and cilantro.

It tasted like spicy garlicky popcorn chicken and the batter was crunchy and I think seasoned with Cajun spices.

Despite being heavily dressed, they weren’t soggy and the chili mayo tasted like Srircha chili mayo so it was sweet, tangy and then spicy.

The alligator was perhaps slightly overcooked because it was a bit on the dry side and chewy. The alligators I’ve had were more tender than chicken.

The cilantro had no flavour and I wish it was chopped up a bit more, but I would still highly recommend ordering these.

It was pretty rich with all the sauce so I recommend sharing.

Crawfish Boulettes – 3.5/6 (Good-Very good)

With pickled jalapeño aioli $8

It came with 3 boulettes or “little balls” and the pickled jalapeño aioli was a nice change from the typical tartar sauce.

It was basically a croquette meets a crab and shrimp cake.

The crawfish was all mashed and mixed with celery, green peppers, onions, green onions, garlic, rice (?), herbs and Cajun like spices.

The inside was moist, flavourful and a bit mushy though and I almost forgot it was crawfish and wouldn’t have minded a stronger presence of it.

It was crunchy and quite heavily battered with a panko crust which also seemed seasoned with Cajun spices.

There was a nice back palate heat and lemony tang as well as a sour crunch from the housemade pickles in the aioli.

This was basically the seafood version of their deep fried boudin.

Smoked Tomato Braised Pork Cheeks – 4.5/6 (Very good-Excellent)

With creamy grits & pepper salad $11

Give me! I love pork cheeks and these were beautiful.

The dish was so rich and comforting, but well balanced with the spicy and sweet bell pepper salad.

The shaved salad was delicate and refreshing with a nice crunch and pickled flavour.

The pork cheeks were falling apart tender and moist and infused with smokey aroma.

The pieces melted in my mouth and sometimes pork cheek can be chewy and resistant, but these were slowly braised.

The collagen was broken down likely with the help of some acidity which I could still taste.

They came across as chunks of pork shoulder, but richer.

The creamy cheesy grits were in a buttery and spicy sweet chili sauce infused with pork drippings so it had good heat and savoury flavour.

The grits were really the background to the main focus which were the pork cheeks, but both were holding hands.

This is the definition of making a $3 plate taste $20 and it was only $11!

**Louisiana Cochon – 5.5/6 (Excellent!)

With turnips, cabbage & cracklins $23

This is the signature dish hence the name “Louisiana Cochon”.

If you like pulled pork, you’ll love this and it’s nothing too adventurous, but absolutely delicious!

It used to be served with peaches and to me that sounds even better, but this was still excellent.

This was comfort food, but it actually wasn’t that heavy or rich because there was no starch or heavy sauce.

It wasn’t a typical BBQ pulled pork with a thick BBQ sauce, but this was almost a brothy or soupy pulled pork.

It was almost like a Carolina pulled pork where the sauce is thin and poured over top of smoked pulled pork and absorbed in the meat that way.

14 Comments

What a great menu, lots to love…oyster, headcheese, pork belly,alligator… sigh, just wonderful !
I wonder if you think the reason for 4/6 for the etouffee is based on your Asian experiences of seafood(etouffee overcooks the shrimp and relies on the sauce to be the star not the shrimp). My votes for the alligator and oysters, throw in the pork cheeks. I do alligator in a black bean sauce with Chinese long green beans or in a hot pot with thick slices of Chinese roast pork with slices of green onion, green, some fish sauce, soy and Shaoxing wine.

ok, reading this post so close to lunch time was NOT a good idea.. everything looks so good!!!

all the price points are insane considering the reputation this restaurant has.. i wish vancouver’s restaurants are more reflective of this… the headcheese looks delish bu wow, that louisiana cochon is really what takes the cake.. the pork belly is definitely too fatty for me too.. although if there was the right amount of bread, then maybe

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